Newbie Question

[orionexplorer]

what exactly does amp hours mean? and how does a single wire alternator work? i just dont get how it works with just a positive output and no ground or does it have a ground and im juss readin wrong or something.

[troy]

amp hours is how long it was played. i may be wrong but a ingle wire alt is a alt that is grounded through the chasis.

[Kapetol T]

1 amp hour is the ability to sustain one amp of current for one hour

or 2 amps for half an hour

or 4 amps for 15 min

etc....

I assume you were talking about a battery?

[Neo_frog]

amp hours is how long it was played. i may be wrong but a ingle wire alt is a alt that is grounded through the chasis.

WTF?

Amp hours or Ah is the maximum sustained amperage drawn from a fully charged battery over a certain time period to a point where the battery is at 100% depth of discharge. In other words, dead. A 200Ah (20 hr rate) battery can sustain a 10-Amp draw for 20 hours before being completely dead. 10 Amps X 20 hours = 200Ah. The concept isn't always consistent in the specs because as the load increases, the capacity of the battery decreases. It makes for a nonlinear discharge if you were to see it on a graph.

A single wire alt only has a + wire going to the battery (and possible splits to go elsewhere). It's grounded to the engine through the alternator housing, and your engine is grounded to your chassis.

[orionexplorer]

thanks neo frog